Ethiopian Thugmocracy

When thugs are “elected” to political office, they become thugmocrats. Naturally, “elected” thugmocrats run thugmocracies.

If democracy is a government of the people, by the people for the people, a thugmocracy is a government of thugs, by thugs, for thugs.

A thugmocracy is a form of “government” in which the facade of representative electoral democracy is used to maintain and perpetuate the iron rule of a bunch of bush thugs who use state power to line their pockets and their cronies’ pockets.

On May 27, 2015, the Associated Press reported that “early results” of ballot counts showed the ruling TPLF thugmocrats had won 100 percent of 442 parliamentary seats.

No one doubts the TPLF thugmocrats will win the remaining 105 seats for a total of 547 or 100 percent of the parliamentary seats.

The TPLF thugmocrats damn near nailed it in 2010. They missed it by a hair, clenching only 99.6 percent.

The last time any election was “won” by 100 percent was in 2002. Saddam Hussein won every one of the 11,445,638 votes cast.

Way to go TPLF. Y’all shown the world the true meaning of a perfect election.

Truth be told, the TPLF delivered on its promise of a perfect election.

In February 2015, TPLF puppet prime minster (PPM) Hailemariam Desalegn (HD) said his party had in place “perfect election laws” that will produce a “perfect election.”

PPM-HD is a man of his word. He delivered the perfekt elektion in the May 24 elektion.

Winston Churchill said, “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all others.”

I beg to disagree. Thugmocracy is the worst form of government. Period!

Democracy as a form of government has a checkered history.

The citizens of the ancient city-state (polis) of Athens introduced “democracy” in the Fifth Century B.C. The idea was to have people (“demo”) rule (kratia”). The common people would exercise self-rule.

The ruling was done by the male free citizens of Athens who would gather in the “agora” (the public square/gathering place) for discussion and decision making. The Athenians had “direct democracy” in which every citizen had a right to personally participate in political decision making.

Athenian democracy served only one in five inhabitants. Women, slaves and foreigners were not citizens. They were excluded from the “democratic” process.

Contemporaneous with Athenian democracy, a popular form of government was introduced in the city-state of Rome.

The Romans called their form of government “respublica” (res= thing; publica= public [affairs of the public]).

The Roman “respublica” was also practiced in the public square. It was held in the “forum” in the center of that city-state.

Like the Athenians, the Romans limited participation to citizens.

Unlike the Athenians, Roman citizenship was conferred by birth, granted by naturalization and by manumission (slave owners freeing their slaves).

The Romans opted for representative democracy (indirect democracy). Instead of citizens directly participating in governance, they would elect representatives to make decisions for them. Ultimate political power remained with the people, but the people delegated their power to representatives they elected for a specific period of time.

Most Roman citizens, like Athens, could not participate in the “respublica” because they did not live close enough to the “forums”. They were effectively excluded.

The Roman model of representative democracy inspired Western representative democracies for centuries.

In the 17th And 18th Centuries, republican governments based on indirect representative democracy emerged in America, England and elsewhere.

Following the American Revolution in 1776, the Americans established a liberal democracy with broad protections for individual liberty, property rights and allegiance to the rule of law.

The English formalized their parliamentary form of representative democracy after the Glorious Revolution in 1688. The seed of their representative democracy was planted in Article 61 of the Magna Carta in 1215.